Was it something we said? Kit asks with a chuckle.
Hilde huffs and gets outside, unamused.
As he watches Hilde leave, Iskender smiles and shrugs at Kit.
Dilwyn checks the prisoners for scratches or bites that might show that they were infected, but does not find any. Ungagging the three of them, they all ask to be released. The speaker for the group says "I do not know what happened but Hagrim was such a nice fellow, till the sickness happened. Then he and his fellow priests rounded up the ones that were not diseased and held us prisoner here. There were three others that they took out a few days ago. Did you find them? Are they alright?"
Hilde after seeing that the prisoners are no threat, heads back out with an "evil eye" glance back at Iskender, and picks up her weapon. She stations herself just outside in case more trouble comes their way, while Kit and Iskender shrug to themselves at her leaving.
You release the three prisoners, and after some conversation you let them go their way. Tieing up the remaining acolyte, you head to the jail to put him a cell by himself. Entering the jail, the woman, Milda, calls out to you, "why am I here?" she queries. Your other prisoner still sits sullen in his cell, not paying attention to his surroundings.
'Cause you thought you could set yourself on fire and fly. That's why. Kit responds to the woman as he pushes the acolyte into a cell-hard.
Zal shuffles after Kit having been quiet most of these last few moments. Upon seeing the woman in the cell being lucid Zal appraoches with academic interest and eyes the woman through the bars, Truly do you not recall what led you here?
"Alas," says Dilwyn as he helps the freed prisoners to their feet. "We found them earlier, but we were too late. They had been left hanging from the tree in the center of town. So far the survivors we've encountered have either left town or consolidated at the apothecary. It's fortunate that they did not infect you as well. You're free to go where you will, though I suggest leaving town might be the best option to avoid both later exposure to the illness or the disappearances that we've heard about happening. The surviving infected we're keeping quarantined at the jail, so I'd stay away from there."
"Perhaps one of the side effects is memory loss?" he suggests. "You've been exposed to an unknown disease, and we've put you in there to keep you from hurting yourself. What's the last thing you can remember?"
The freed prisoners gag, and one of the women actually throws up when hearing that the others were hung. The man says, "we will head to Rexel's shop and take refuge there. In a few days, if there are no more incidents, we will leave. Thank you for our lives." and he helps the two women and they take off heading to the apothecary shop.
"I remember being very depressed because my husband died, but hurting myself? Are you sure? Why am I in my wedding dress?" Milda says. "I do not remember any of this. Please let me go. Is there anyone in town that is still alive and can help?"
The other prisoner still has nothing to say, and the acolyte, now that he is locked in a cell also becomes quite sullen.
"I'm sorry," says Dilwyn with as much empathy as he can put into his voice. "We can't let you out until we've discovered a cure for the disease you've been infected with. When we first found you, you were doused in oil and only failed to set yourself on fire because I created water to ruin your tindertwig. The same trick was unable to prevent you from jumping off your silo, however. You may be in control of yourself for now, but there's no way to tell if and when you might have another blackout episode. We're doing everything we can to discover the source of this disease, and how to treat it, and in the mean time the nice woman from the inn has promised to look after you while we investigate, and Rexel from the apothecary is also trying to solve this problem at the same time. It's unfortunate, but we just can't risk you infecting others by accident or intent."
Do you remember anyone else acting crazy, then sane, then crazy again? Kit asks even though he isn't exactly sure if that information can help - or be trusted.
"It's funny how so many of these survivors are planning for the future. I understand that people are survivors, but we should give them the bad news about the end of the world, right?"
Dilwyn sighs with frustration. "If the world actually ends, I'll believe it then. Until then, it's unhelpful and unproductive to do anything other than make plans with the assumption that it won't. All we have to suggest is are some troll guts, anyway. Since when are trolls the authority on anything?"
My philosophy is that every day I wake up, take a breath, and live that day to the fullest! Kit says with a serene look on his face.
You mean him? Kit says as he motions to the acolyte. I certainly hope so, or you all have a strange religion here!
"We will certainly do that," Dilwyn assures the lady. He tries to remember their interaction with the gnome, and is pretty certain they already mentioned that they have infected prisoners quarantined in the jail. It doesn't matter, though, it seems like letting her think she's successfully made a demand may help her stay calm with her unfortunate situation in the long run.
Before heading to the southern portion of the small village, you check out the remaining standing home from where you came in and find the cornfields surrounding this sprawling farmhouse have been mostly trampled and, in some places, burned. The nearby barn is open and abandoned of livestock, and the house looks unattended. Checking out and opening the door, you find nothing of interest in the home. Looking around, you figure that there were five people living here.
Moving to the south, you stop at the next area of interest. This large, grassy field is empty except for six piles of unprocessed timber, each roughly 20 feet long and 10 feet high. Checking it out, Kit can tell the lumber has been here and unprocessed for several weeks now.
Next building is the house for Milda, who is locked up in one of the cells. This modest, two-story manor house has white-washed field stone walls supported by dark oak timbers. Its steeply pitched roof bears bright shingles made from tiles of red clay. Although still stately looking, the home shows signs of recent vandalism. Windows on the ground floor have been smashed, several scorch marks mar the walls, and a half-dozen crossbow bolts are embedded in the front door.
Searching the building, you find a a very well made longsword, and two potions.
Finally the last area to be inspected for survivors. An eight-foot-high, field stone wall surrounds the burned ruins of a lumber mill and three, nondescript warehouses. The mill is little more than ash and crumbling masonry now, still smoldering in a few places, but the warehouses look intact. As you search the inside, you find six dead men. They apparantely killed each other, and the last one bled out from many wounds. One, apparantely the leader has banded mail, buckler, longsword, dagger, heavy crossbow with 10 bolts, and is wearing some kind of harness that you have never seen the likes of before. The other five men look to be part of a militia each with chainmail, longsword, dagger, light crossbow with 10 bolts. In the back room of one of the warehouses, you find seven villagers, tied up, gagged and barely alive. They look like they were used for target practice and also haven't eaten in days.
Hilde goes to the villagers, and quietly untie and ungag them.
"Just a minute," Dilwyn says, hastily. "Let me check them for infection before we let them free. Better to be safe than sorry."
Hilde seems to ignore Dilwyn, and keep untie the villagers, but after a second, and a glance to Dilwyn, she stops and moves aside, to let him check them.
She stands next to him, eyeing the villagers.
Hopefully they are not. I think our little jail is getting too crowded!
When Dilwyn clears them out Hilde will nod at him, and proceed to untie them.
After Hilde unties them, Kit will offer them some food from his pack. It's all right, you are safe now. What happened here anyway?
Dilwyn will also use castings of create water to supplement the food that Kit is offering. Since the boisterous man has already asked the biggest question on his own mind, he'll instead go check the bodies of the others that they passed for signs of infection as well. Even if the freed prisoners can't talk or remember much, finding traces of the infection on their captors would probably explain plenty.
Zaladrel follows Dilwyn looking folks over, BE careful to only give them small amounts of food at first, starvation decimates the stomach and folks tend to overeat and then become even more sick...
"The men were from the town militia. They just went crazy and rounded us up. We would have died if you had not come along." one of the men replies. "Is anyone else in town safe?"
Hilde nods, and smiles... well, almost.
Well, there's a gnome named Rexel, the innkeeper at the Hapless Harpy and a whole mess of people we have been stashing in the jail. Most of them are crazy, but it seems one is not so crazy as she was before. Kit says as he counts off the people on his fingers. We have been through this whole town and it looks like most of the people are dead or have up and left. Was there someone specific you wanted to know about?
"Indeed, we seemed to have quarantined or killed all of those that have been infected so far," Dilwyn confirms, though he doesn't add that there is a depressingly small number of survivors. "While you're not in any immediate danger, I think it would be unwise to consider yourself completely safe until we can discover the source of this disease and either stop it or discover a cure. Once we escort you to somewhere a bit more secure where you can recover from your ordeal in peace, I think that will be our next step." He looks to his companions for confirmation.
Zal nods in agreement at/with Dilwyn.
Kit also nods. I agree, I think you will be safe with the others.
The prisoners slowly take some water and some food. "We will go to Rexel place. I am sure that he will help us" and they all begin to trek out of the warehouse, helping each other and head to the gnome apothecary tree.
Hilde walks to the middle of the town, and looks around.
She extends her arms, looks up, and let a scream out.
Dilwyn watches with slight amusement as Hilde screams for, as far as he can tell, no reason at all. His attention wanders upward for a moment, taking in the sky above and appreciating the nuances of the cloud patterns above.
"I'm good to press on to the location of the closer pin," he says when Hilde finishes having her moment. "Unless someone objects, I think it's worth seeing how far we can stretch ourselves today so that there might less risk of more of the healthy people disappearing."
Hilde moves to Hilde, and smiles to him. She nods.
Kit laughs as Hilde yells at the top of her lungs. I did something like that once only it was in the middle of Sandpoint and I was nekkid as a jaybird! Sheriff Hemlock was not amused and for the remainder of my stay I was a guest of the Sandpoint jail. I will never step foot in the Rusty Dragon again! Kit then picks up his axe and follows Dilwyn and Hilde.
Hilde smiles at Skylark and pats him on the back, maybe a little too strongly.
Zal shakes his head at the spectacle with a slight smile on his face, I'm glad to see that you learned your lesson Kit, I'm sure by avoiding that tavern you will never have such troubles again.
The hedgewitch moves to follow the others.
"It's lucky we saved those peasants there, or the end of the world might have gotten them. Anyone up for a song?"
Iskender plays a lighthearted tune of mayhem, mistrust, and murder.
Kit exhales sharply from Hilde's 'pat' on the back not expecting such a forceful blow. Thanks Hilde! I think...
He smiles at Zal, Of course I say that now with the end of the world eminent. I am sure if I find myself back in Sandpoint I will also find myself in the Rusty Dragon.
As Iskender starts to play, Kit will merrily bob his head to the song.
Following the cart path out of town, you travel about four miles along it, which as the path is in terrible and overgrown shape, takes you about two hours. As you approach a branch in the trail, you see a sign that is weather worn, hanging by one chain, and has not been taken care of in many years, that says "Mother Oddle’s Orphanage". The path continues on. Taking the path to the Orphanage, you see surrounded by gnarled oak trees, an unkempt apple orchard, and an overgrown flower garden, this ramshackle, two-story farmhouse has clearly seen better days. The plain, rectangular building is covered in gray green moss and white, sun-bleached planks showing signs of rot. Even the roof sags heavily, displaying multiple holes and missing shingles. Aside from the chirping of crickets the area seems quiet and abandoned.
Hilde tries to move ahead of the others, as quiet as she is able.
Those poor kids! Kit says with a shake of his head as he follows the not-too-stealthy Hilde.
Zal considers the sign, probing his memory. As the house appears before them the elf nods, Mother Oddle, yes. I heard tales that she passed some years ago, ten perhaps? Her son inherited the place a man named...Silam perhaps? Clearly he had no fondness or care for the place, look at its condition!
Sensing that Hilde intends to be stealthy...though not being particularly successful, Zal opts to hand back and wait until the others are ready to move closer.
"It certainly doesn't look like it deserved having a pin marking its location," Dilwyn muses as Zaladriel explains the reasons why the building looks so abandoned. "But perhaps something unsavory has been squatting inside." Before approaching closer himself he looks around the ground for signs that something, or somethings, have been coming an going from the apparently abandoned building recently and, if so, what those somethings might have been.